Case study 01

Atlas Pay

A payments brand built from a single mark, drawn flat, milled into a chip, lit in 3D and carried into the product.

Sector: Cross-border payments
Year: 2026
Role: Identity · Chip · 3D · Product
Scope: Mark to app, one designer

Overview

A brand for businesses that move money across borders, with one account, cards for the whole team and every payment visible the moment it happens.

Deliverables

Mark, chip, card, 3D films, app and web

Typeface

Aeonik by CoType Foundry

Full deck View on Behance

Fig. 01 / The card, pushed through light3D loop · Blender

The challenge

Challenge

One identity that holds up flat on a screen, milled into metal and lit in 3D, without changing its shape.

A payments brand for businesses that move money across borders. The brief’s four words became the test every decision had to pass.

Global: Built for money that crosses borders.
One system that reads the same in every market.
Intelligent: Precise, calm, considered. The product
does the heavy lifting, not the decoration.
Trustworthy: High contrast and nothing hidden.
Every number readable at a glance.
Premium: Materials over ornament:
metal, light and a lot of black.

01 / Process

Process

It started with Atlas, the Titan who holds the world on his shoulders.

The first marks took that literally, with strokes bracing, carrying and leaning into a circle. A lot of shapes later, the strokes stopped holding the world and became it.

Fig. 1.1 / First round: forms before names18 forms

Bearing
Carrying
Leaning
Bracing

Fig. 1.2 / Holding the worldEarly marks, all built on the Atlas idea

Columns

Atlas as support. It never translated into a real idea, just another generic “connecting people worldwide” mark.

Network

It read like a tech start-up rather than a finance brand, with the generic “connecting people worldwide” look.

Fig. 1.3 / Two routes that didn’t make it

Rays appear
Rays, contained
Rays from a corner
One origin, every direction

Fig. 1.4 / The turnThe strokes stop holding the world and become it

02 / Mark to chip

The idea

Every card has a chip.
Ours carries the mark.

Rays from a single origin, held inside a circle, then milled into the contact grid. The mark sits in negative space where every card already has a chip.

Origin: 0.044 x below the top edge
Angle: 7.5° steps, ten edges, five cut-outs
Chip: Mark in negative space, pads redrawn around it

Vector master of the Atlas Pay chip: the mark set in a circular well, with the contact pads redrawn around it and four numbered callouts — Fig. 2.1 / Chip, vector masterThe mark in negative space

Fig. 2.2 / Chip, rendered3D loop

The Atlas Pay mark: white rays from a single origin inside a circle, with lines extending past it — Fig. 2.3 / ConceptRays from one point

Construction drawing of the mark on a grid: the bounding circle, the origin where the outer edges meet and the 7.5 degree angle between rays — Fig. 2.4 / Construction7.5° grid

03 / System

System

Black and white do the work.
Blue behaves like light.

Greys support and one blue is kept for light, with every value taken from the product itself. Aeonik carries everything from balances to headlines.

Fig. 3.1 / LockupsHorizontal · Stacked · Mark · Wordmark

Atlas Pay palette: Atlas Black, Atlas White, Paper, the Depth gradient, Signal Blue, Graphite, Carbon, Steel and Silver with their HEX, RGB and CMYK values — Fig. 3.2 / PaletteBlack, white, four greys, one blue

04 / Card & 3D

Card & 3D

A metal card in black, and a virtual one that only lives in the app.

Signal Blue only becomes a surface on the virtual card, as the Depth gradient crossed by the ray grid. The 3D films push the metal card through the same light the brand is built on.

Material: Stainless steel, ~18 g (proposed)
Chip: Custom, with the mark in the contact grid
Virtual: Unlimited, per person or per supplier

The physical Atlas Pay card: black metal with the lockup and the custom silver chip — Fig. 4.1 / Physical and virtualMetal card · In-app card

The virtual Atlas Pay card: the Depth gradient from black to Signal Blue, crossed by the ray grid, card ending 7702 — Fig. 4.1 / Physical and virtualMetal card · In-app card

Fig. 4.2 Light reveal · 4.3 Top view · 4.4 Mark, close-up3D loops · Blender

05 / Product

Product

In the app, the numbers come first.

The card’s contrast carries into everyday use: a black balance panel, amounts in Aeonik Light with the cents stepped back, flat buttons and one floating bar. No glass and no gradients on controls.
The material lives on the card.

Welcome screen: One account. Every direction. Over the 3D film, with Open an account and Log in buttons — Fig. 5.1 / Welcome, home, cardsiOS · 390 pt

Home screen: a total balance of 248,590.40 euro, four actions and today’s transactions — Fig. 5.1 / Welcome, home, cardsiOS · 390 pt

Ordering a card

Ordering a card ends with it sliding out of its sleeve.

Instead of a confirmation screen, the card slides out under the same light as the 3D films, then the details settle underneath.

New card screen in the Atlas Pay app: the black metal card slides out of its sleeve above the text Your card is ready, with physical and virtual options and an Order card button — Fig. 5.2 / New cardSlides out on loop

Two Atlas Pay screens: sending 4,200 euro to Morrow Labs in dark mode, and a transaction from Halden Supply Co. in light mode with its status timeline — Fig. 5.3 / Send and transactionDark and light

Payments

Every payment shows where it is.

Authorised, settled, receipt: a short timeline under the amount, which stays the loudest thing on screen. The same system switches to Paper for daylight and documents.